Match Report

June 21 – We traveled to Denver, CO with 19 players with 2 full sides. The experience for our players was an eye opener with the level of competition.

This is our 3rd year participating in the Western Qualifying rounds in Denver, CO. As the Ramblers continued to compete at a higher level, we become better as a club. Moreover, the exposure for our players is to have them to understand where they have to be in order to compete at this level.

Our day began at 9:20 am kick off with Primus playing Denver
Barbarians who took 4th place in the nationals last year. The first
half was quite a battle with Ramblers drawing first blood with our
scrumhalf, Jimmy Harrison, scoring our first try in the corner.
Although we played a great first half, our missed tackles prevailed
where the Barbarians came back with 2 immediate tries before the end
of the first half with the score of 5 -14. The second half was much of
the same with multiple mistakes where the Barbarians capitalized;
scoring 4 more tries to end our first game with the score of 5 – 36.

Our second game was against the Kansas City Blues who won the 7's
Houston western qualifier tournament just two weeks ago. We came out
firing with 2 quick tries from Harrison (scrumhalf) and Kreitler
(hooker) to put us up 10 – 0. With only 1 minute left of the first
half, Blues scored a try on us to end the half with a score of 10 – 7.
The momentum shifted in the second half where the Blues scored 2
additional tries, which gave the Blues a win with a score of 10 – 19;
giving us our second loss of the day.

Our third game in our pool was against the Dallas Harlequins. We
started really slow with Harlequins scoring 3 tries on us ending the
first half with 0 – 17. The second half was different where we were
resilient to score 2 tries from Harrison (Scrumhalf) and Buschbacher
(Winger), but the time limited us to score giving the final score of
14 – 22.

Our fourth and final game of our pool match was against Austin EL Azul
who blew us out in Houston. It was different this time, since we have
played them before so we played against them differently. We were able
to adjust to our attacks both offensively and defensively. Kreitler
(Hooker) scored for us in the first half putting them on their heels
in the first half. However, our mistakes continued as they capitalized
on it with 2 tries to end the first half with a score of 5 – 12. We
came out the second half strong with Walton (Prop) scoring a quick
try, but missed our conversion to tie the game. Again, 1 minute left
of the game, they scored around the corner with no time left in
regulation. The final score was 10 – 19.

Although we loss 4 games in our pool, we were very positive. We felt
that there were progression on this team compared to our last
tournament in Houston. In fact, Gregg Jarvis, 7's Head Coach of West,
said "we are almost there".

Congratulations to Jimmy Harrison because he was invited to west camp in Denver.

Secundus on the other hand ended the day with 1 win and 3 losses. Here
are the results:

Thank you to all the players that traveled with us. As we progress, we
will continue to elevate as a team so we can be in contention in the
west. This exposure will only make us better rugby players, and to
realize what we need to do to get there.

Our summer 7s is officially in full swing. After our win in Belle
Vegas defending our title, Primus traveled to Houston for our first
western qualifying round.

We traveled with 12 players. We had 8 rookies and 4 players that were
veterans. The day in Houston started at around 9:30 am with teams
competing at the higher level of 7's to advance to the nationals.
Ramblers' first competition was against Fort Worth. We played well
against this team that was ranked in our west conference from last
year. Our tackles were impeccable and our passing was crisp. We were
able to give it to our play makers as we attacked both sides of the
playing field. Our efforts were cut short due to time and loss our
first match of the day 7 – 12.

Our second opponent was against Woodland Exiles. It was their first
match of the day. We competed well against a team full of ex-football
players with speed and aggression. Our end result was a loss with the
score of 0 – 45.

Our third match of the day was against Austin Blues. They were fast
and furious with a lot of stutter steps that put us on our heels. We
loss this match with the final score of 7 – 56.

Although the end results does not reflect the way we play, but with
new faces on the team we held our own. Our lacked of experiences were
apparent at this level. However, we will continue to work on issues of
basic fundamentals and other take away from this past weekend to
develop our team to synchronize for upcoming western qualifying rounds
in Kansas City and Denver.

Excellent job to all that traveled with us on this trip. The exposure
at this level will give our players better experiences to become
better rugby players and know how to compete at this level. We must
continue to work hard so we can contend to the highest level of rugby.

A-side started strong against Rowdies B and Sunday Morning in the first 2 matches, but struggled against U of I in the 3rd pool play match. U of I was a very fast, fit team that moved the ball well. U of I scored their tries by beating the Rambers on the corners and the Ramblers could not capitalize on penalties within the U of I 22 meter line. The Ramblers struggled in the beginning against Eureka (Royals) in the semi-finals, but a punch thrown by a Eureka player (after Alex Deguire had an excellent ruck) in the second half led to a red card and an advantage for the Ramblers. We were able to capitalize on the 1 man advantage and win the game by 2 tries. In the final match against the Bombers, the Ramblers went into the second half down 12-5. We then scored two key tries, followed by a Bomber try late in the second half to tie the match, 17-17. In OT, the Rambler line came up flat and made a quick tackle forcing a rushed pass by the Bombers that was picked off by Jimmy Harrison. Jimmy then made a 50 meter run for the game winning try.

B side went 0-3 for the day, but not without showing great potential. The B side's first match was against a very experienced Bombers squad, making it difficult for many of the newer players to adjust The other 2 losses came from the Rowdies A side and Eureka. Despite going 0-3, everyone got playing time, including 2 brand new players.

It was a very wet and slippery day, but cool weather made it an enjoyable day of 7s.

Our 2012 summer 7’s program took a sharp turn to better our recognition as the St. Louis Ramblers in the west. In the beginning of the season we have asked all the players that attended the meeting with the agreement that we were going to play at the highest level not only to challenge the program but to challenge the players. Our objective is to gain more recognition with the west that we are a team in contention with the USA pool and to anticipate the 2015 / 2016 Olympic tryouts for Rio de Janeiro. This type of exposure will give Ramblers and the players the opportunity to play at the highest level of rugby.

This past weekend, we traveled to Denver, CO with 9 players as part of the qualifying round to give us a chance to continue to the nationals. Our first match was against the Denver Barbarians who were ranked #1 in our pool. We played a very competitive game, but fell short giving us our first loss of the day with the score of 0 to 33. Our second match was against the Woodland Exiles where we have played them in Kansas City. Although we played a tough game, but our mistakes were capitalized which gave us our second loss of the day with the score of 0 to 31. Our third game was different with our game in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park stadium and the game was online for all to watch, we stepped it up with a higher intense mentality. We played Gentlemen of Aspen where we were up in the first half with the score of 7 to 5. However, the mistakes prevailed which allowed Aspen to score 21 unanswered points making the final score to be 7 to 26. The final score of the 3 matches does not reflect the way we played. We did not give up, and we played with heart. With this, our resilience gave us a win for 7th place over the Kansas City Rogues with the final score of 31 to 7.

Overall, our day was an eye opener for our players to continue to elevate their game to become better rugby players. I am hoping at this level of rugby, we have created a set of discipline(s) to become better and if not forward looking to set goals to become the Best of West. This season was for us to plant the seed as our future for this program will be become stronger and better in 2013.

Thank you for all those that supported the Ramblers’ Summer 7s program, especially to our sponsors. The sponsors are Felix’s in Dogtown (thank you Drew Blaylock for setting it up for us as part of our fundraising effort), Gary Mantei from CRH Transport, Geoff Barnes and Rebecca Schloegl (married an old boy and accommodated our lodging on Friday).

Our season is not over as we have our MO 7s to win. Currently, we are undefeated. We will play the championship game on Thursday, August 2. We will continue to have practice on Tuesday, July 24, 7pm at Franz Park. Please come out to support us when we win the championship for MO 7s.

This past weekend we traveled with 2 teams playing in the open side
division and the western qualifier round. The day began at 8am for our
b-side playing Topeka as our first match in our pool. B-side dominated
from the start of the whistle to the end of the game with the final
score of 24 to 17. The hat trick goes to Jake Kreitler, SLU player,
with 3 tries to give us our first win of the day. After a bye in our
pool, we were challenged against the Kansas City Blues’ b-side. We
gave them a good fight, but we could not score giving us our first
loss of the day with the final score of 0 to 19. However, the good
news is that we made it to the plate semi playing against TCU.
Although we dominated in the first half, we were unable to hold on
only to lose to them by the score of 21 to 33.

The day went on with the blistering sun of 107 degrees, and playing on
turf added the unbearable heat to the challenge of the western
qualifying round for all. The a-side had a 2:40pm kick off time
against Gentlemen of Aspen where we played our most astounding match
of the day, if not, all season. We were extremely sharp on defense
with them playing on our end knocking on the door several times, but
we were resilient enough to deny them from scoring. Our tackling was
persistent in every phase of their attacks. As a result of our first
half performance, we were up by the score of 7 to 5. The second half,
however, was not as fortunate as they capitalize on our mistakes. Our
two critical mistakes converted into tries, which ended the game by
the score of 7 to 17. The exhaustion and the heat continued as our
a-side face the Woodland Exiles who were ranked second in the west.
This match showed a lot of heart from the players as they executed our
game play hoping to pull off a win for the team. However, we continued
to make mistakes where they capitalize and converted into tries. The
final score was a loss of 7 to 36. The two losses determined who will
be playing in the final round to continue on in the tournament. This
was, also, a must win for us to gain better ranking in the west. Our
opponent in this round was against the KC Rogues. We continued to make
mistakes where they scored 3 quick tries on us in the first half. The
second half, however, showed a glimpse of hope as we scored 2 tries,
but we did not have enough time to continue this momentum. The loss of
12 to 15 was our last game of the day.

In summary, the Ramblers were challenged throughout the day for both
a-side and b-side. Although the end results were losses and one win,
but the performance by all players were promising as we continue to
the western qualifying rounds into Denver, CO on July 21. We can only
get better and stronger through the challenges and experience that we
gain as a team. Thank you to all players that traveled with the team
for this weekend, which includes players that were called on the last
minute (Colin Heath, Dan Wishmeyer and Jeff O’Donnell). The following
are the overall results of the day:

After winning the Bellvegas 7s tournament, we bought a team to Milwaukee, WI for the Lakefront 7s Tournament in the men’s competitive bracket. It was a perfect day with temperature at 90 degrees, where we had our first match promptly at 8am against UWM. The outcome of this match was not what we expected with players slow to start where we were behind 5 – 7 at the end of the first half. The start of the second half continue to be a slow start for us facing defeat with UWM scoring their second try with the score of 5 – 12. With only 1 minute left in the game, the team was determine to win this game. We scored our second try of the day putting us at 10 – 12 with a conversion that we had to make to tie the game. Joe Krispin, our fly half, took the conversion knowing that this will make or break the rest the day for us. The conversion kick was good to give the Ramblers a tie and a point in our pool. Ultimately, this game change the momentum for us to defeat Peoria (35 – 5) and MRFC Old Boys (21 – 14).

We have won our pool to make it to the Semi-finals seating the Ramblers 3rd. We were faced with the toughest opponent of the day, Savage Nations, with 2 USA Eagles player and the team that had the most points within our bracket. It was another rough start for us with Savage Nations where they scored 3 surprising tries from the kick off. However, we settled in and played our game with the first half, which resulted to be a score of 5 – 26. The end of the first half gave us continued momentum with us dominating the entire second half. Even though we dominating the second half we could only score 7 points with the final score to be 12 – 33. We came in 3rd place overall. The two teams that were in the finals were Savage Nations v. Youngbloodz B. The final score was 45 – 0.

In summary, this is an excellent start for the Ramblers’ Sevens Program. I am happy to see so many players committed and with this commitment we will continue success. Our next tournament will be in Kansas City, MO for the Kansas City 7’s Western Qualifier Tournament on July 7th. We planned to bring 2 teams entering in the Western Qualifying round and the open men’s side. Thank you for all the players that traveled to Milwaukee. Let’s continue this momentum as it is our year to advance to the Nationals.

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